Section III: Toward "Personal" Computing Flashcards

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1
Q

What was the most prominent example of an early interactive computer?

A

Project Whirlwind

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2
Q

Who was put in charge of Project Whirlwind?

A

Jay Forrester

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3
Q

The U.S. Air Force contracted which university to work on a flight sim?

A

MIT, the Servomechanisms Laboratory

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4
Q

What did Forrester do to make the computer for Project Whirlwind faster?

A

he made it electronic

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5
Q

The U.S. Air Force was going to cut funding for Project Whirlwind, but what saved them?

A

the Cold War

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6
Q

When did Project Whirlwind become operational?

A

1951

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7
Q

How was the Project Whirlwind computer different from most computers at that time?

A

it was faster, used a CRT and a printer, and was able to display simple graphics

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8
Q

After developing Project Whirlwind, MIT transferred the technology to which computer company?

A

IBM

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9
Q

What did IBM market the Whirlwind computer as?

A

AN/FSQ-7

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10
Q

Many AN/FSQ-7 computers will built, forming which air defense system?

A

SAGE

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11
Q

Which decade was the SAGE system decommissioned?

A

the 1980s

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12
Q

IBM used its experience with the SAGE system to create which other system?

A

SABRE

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13
Q

SABRE was made for which airline?

A

American Airlines

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14
Q

Which year was SABRE fully operational?

A

1964

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15
Q

What was SABRE?

A

an interactive flight reservation system

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16
Q

By which decade were all major airlines using interactive flight reservation systems?

A

the 1970s

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17
Q

Who made timesharing?

A

John McCarthy

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18
Q

Who lead CTSS?

A

Fernando Corbato

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19
Q

When was CTSS made?

A

1963

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20
Q

At its peak, how many simultaneous users could CTSS support?

A

30

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21
Q

What did CTSS use to input things into the computer?

A

typing on teletypes

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22
Q

Teletypes pioneered the use of which 2 keyboard keys?

A

Escape and Control keys

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23
Q

When was CTSS able to support electronic mail?

A

1965

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24
Q

When was CTSS decommissioned?

A

1973

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25
Q

Where was BASIC invented?

A

Dartmouth

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26
Q

What was BASIC?

A

a beginner’s programming language designed to help students learn how to code

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27
Q

What did Dartmouth’s BASIC timesharing system use for input?

A

teletypes

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28
Q

What computer was the BASIC timesharing system built around?

A

a General Electric 235 computers

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29
Q

What was the successor of CTSS?

A

Multics

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30
Q

Who made the second system effect?

A

Fred Brooks

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31
Q

What is the second system effect?

A

the idea that most people tend to over-design the second system

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32
Q

How many total users could Multics support?

A

25

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33
Q

When did Bell Labs leave the Multics project?

A

1969

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34
Q

In 1970, General Electric sold its computer division to which other computer company?

A

Honeywell

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35
Q

When was Multics decommissioned?

A

2000

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36
Q

Who founded DEC?

A

Kenneth Olsen

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37
Q

When did Olsen found DEC?

A

1957

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38
Q

What was DEC’s first computer?

A

the PDP-1

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39
Q

How much did the PDP-1 cost?

A

125k

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40
Q

What did the PDP-1 use for memory?

A

transistors and core memory

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41
Q

How was DEC able to offer the PDP-1 for so cheap?

A

they used the spartan business model

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42
Q

What was the spartan business model?

A

where you don’t spend extra money on unnecessary things to cut down on costs

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43
Q

How much money did a PDP-8 cost?

A

18k

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44
Q

When was the PDP-8 created?

A

1965

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45
Q

What was the size of the PDP-8?

A

the size of a fridge

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46
Q

What were the PDP series known as?

A

minicomputers

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47
Q

How many total PDP-8 models were sold?

A

30,000

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48
Q

When was the PDP-11 made?

A

1970

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49
Q

The PDP-11 was the “___________” minicomputer?

A

quintessential

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50
Q

How many PDP-11s were sold?

A

170,000

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51
Q

What was the PDP-11’s operating system?

A

RSTS-11

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52
Q

RSTS-11 included a modified version of which programming language?

A

BASIC

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53
Q

Which programming language was made on a PDP-11?

A

the C programming language

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54
Q

When was the C programming language created?

A

1972

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55
Q

Who made the UNIX operating system?

2 people

A

Ken Thompson and Dennis Ritchie

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56
Q

What computer did Thompson and Ritchie use to get the UNIX started?

A

a PDP-7

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57
Q

Dennis and Ritchie convinced management to get them which computer to continue the UNIX on?

A

a PDP-11

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58
Q

What language was UNIX initially written in?

A

assembly language

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59
Q

The Unix was rewritten but this time it used which programming language?

A

C programming language

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60
Q

Who invented the C programming language?

A

Ritchie

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61
Q

Why did AT&T have trouble selling the Unix?

A

because it was a government-regulated monopoly and couldn’t sell items not related to telephony

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62
Q

How did AT&T sell Unix?

A

they sold copies of Unix to universities for a low cost

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63
Q

Who did networking begin with?

A

J. C. R. Licklider

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64
Q

What were the nodes for ARPANET called?

A

interface message processors, or IMPs

65
Q

What was the solution for trying to connect nodes across large distances?

A

store and forward packet switching

66
Q

Store and forward packet switching takes ideas from what?

A

old telegraph networks

67
Q

What were the 4 initial universities to have ARPANET?

A

UCLA, UCSB, Stanford, and University of Utah

68
Q

What is a protocol?

A

an agreement on how something should be formatted, encoded, and transmitted

69
Q

What fueled the growth of the ARPANET?

A

electronic mail

70
Q

What other computer network already had electronic mail?

A

CTSS

71
Q

Why was electronic mail on CTSS limited?

A

because it could only be used to communicate with colleagues from the same organization

72
Q

In 1975, what was the largest source of traffic for ARPANET?

A

email

73
Q

What drove the creation of many other computer networks?

A

email

74
Q

The computers linked by Usenet were mainly running which operating system?

A

Unix

75
Q

Usenet pioneered which other electronic service?

A

newsgroups

76
Q

What are newsgroups?

A

an online service that allows people to post messages sorted by topic

77
Q

Newsgroups can be compared to which modern internet service?

A

social media

78
Q

Which organization started BITNET?

A

the City University of New York

79
Q

When did BITNET merge with CS Net?

A

1989

80
Q

BITNET and CS Net were eventually absorbed by which other network?

A

NSFNET

81
Q

Which organization created NSFNET?

A

the National Science Foundation

82
Q

When was ARPANET decommissioned?

A

1990

83
Q

Which country used the Minitel Network?

A

France

84
Q

What percent of French households had a telephone in 1970?

A

8%

85
Q

What percent of French households had a telephone in 1989?

A

95%

86
Q

When was the Minitel network shut down?

A

2012

87
Q

Where was the first wireless computer network based?

A

Hawaii

88
Q

Why was it difficult to build a traditional computer network for Hawaii?

A

because the state is very mountainous and is separated by thousands of miles of water

89
Q

What was the first wireless network?

A

ALOHAnet

90
Q

Who made ALOHAnet?

A

Norm Abramson

91
Q

How did ALOHAnet transfer information?

A

through radio signals using a packet-switching method

92
Q

What happened when 2 computers sent data at the same time using ALOHAnet?

A

they would collide and transmission would pause for a few milliseconds and then retransmit

93
Q

ALOHAnet inspired which other invention?

A

Ethernet

94
Q

In the mid-20th century, Xerox was the leader of which industry?

A

the copy machine industry

95
Q

Which decade did Xerox’s patents for copy machines expire?

A

the 1970s

96
Q

Which year was the PARC center founded?

A

1970

97
Q

Who was hired to manage the PARC labs?

A

Robert Taylor

98
Q

What was the first computer Xerox made called?

A

the Alto

99
Q

How was the Alto different from other computers on the market?

A

it displayed output on a screen, it had a keyboard and a mouse, and the screen was bitmapped

100
Q

What does it mean when a screen is bitmapped?

A

it means it can display both text and images

101
Q

Who invented the mouse?

A

Douglas Engelbart

102
Q

Which demonstration was the mouse featured in?

A

the 1968 demonstration called “Mother of All Demos”

103
Q

Before the laser printer, what were the 2 most common types of printers?

A

the daisy wheel printer and the dot matrix printer

104
Q

What was a daisy wheel printer compared to?

A

a typewriter

105
Q

How does the daisy wheel printer operate?

A

it strikes letters against a ribbon of ink and produces nice documents but can’t print images

106
Q

How does a dot matrix printer operate?

A

it strikes tiny pins against an ink ribbon and can print text and images, but is clotty and pixelated

107
Q

How does a laser printer operate?

A

it uses laser beams to control the ink and can print documents that have text and images with high precision

108
Q

When was the Alto first finished?

A

1973

109
Q

What was a deficiency in the one computer one-user model the Alto used?

A

it was difficult to share files with other users

110
Q

Who invented the Ethernet?

A

Robert Metcalfe

111
Q

How did Metcalfe connect the Alto machines together?

A

using the Ethernet

112
Q

When was the Ethernet finished?

A

1974

113
Q

When the Ethernet was finished being designed, it could support speeds up to __ _______ bits per second.

A

3 million

114
Q

What does WYSIWYG stand for?

A

What You See Is What You Get

115
Q

WYSIWYG is an acronym used for which concept?

A

the GUI word processor

116
Q

What was the first GUI-based word processor called?

A

the Bravo

117
Q

Which company made the Bravo?

A

Xerox, more specifically the PARC team

118
Q

What was Gypsy?

A

an updated version of Bravo that was easier to use

119
Q

When was Gypsy released?

A

1975

120
Q

Who invented Smalltalk?

A

Alan Kay

121
Q
A
122
Q

What new approach did Smalltalk take?

A

object-oriented programming

123
Q

In object-oriented programming, programmers first create what?

A

data structures, or classes

124
Q

In object-oriented programming, programmers design what after creating the classes?

A

the procedures or methods

125
Q

What does object-oriented programming do?

A

it helps with organization, which allows programmers to create larger more robust programs

126
Q

Who invented CLU?

A

Barbara Liskov

127
Q

Where was CLU invented?

A

MIT

128
Q

What was the Star?

A

an “improved” version of the Alto

129
Q

What slowed the adoption of the Star?

A

it was sluggish and very expensive

130
Q

How much did the Star cost?

A

$16,000

131
Q

What is an innovation that made small, cheap computers possible?

A

the microprocessor

132
Q

Which 2 people founded Intel?

A

Robert Noyce and Gordon Moore

133
Q

A Japanese calculator manufacturer asked for custom chips from Intel to do what?

A

make more advanced calculators that could perform trigonometry and other advanced functions

134
Q

When was the Intel 4004 microprocessor released?

A

1971

135
Q

What was the improved version of the Intel 4004 called?

A

the Intel 8008

136
Q

Who made the Altair 8800?

A

MITS

137
Q

Where was MITS based?

A

Albuquerque, New Mexico

138
Q

Where was the Altair 8800 announced?

A

the Jan. 1975 issue of Popular Electronics

139
Q

What was the Altair 8800 advertised as?

A

a cheap minicomputer that cost only $400

140
Q

Which chip did the Altair 8800 use?

A

the Intel 8080 chip

141
Q

How did the Altair 8800 achieve its low cost?

A

through its use of off-the-shelf parts

142
Q

The Altair 8800 was limited and was sold mainly as what?

A

a kit

143
Q

How much memory did the Altair 8800 have?

A

256 bytes

144
Q

What were expansion cards?

A

hardware that allowed computers to be given extra functionality, like more storage and the ability to connect to external devices

145
Q

Who made a version of BASIC that was compatible with the Altair’s Intel 8080 processor?

A

Paul Allen and Bill Gates

146
Q

When did Commodore, Apple, and Radio Shack release their first personal computers?

A

1977

147
Q

What were the differences between Apple, Commodore, and Radio Shack’s PC compared to other PCs?

A

they didn’t use Intel, they were sold as complete systems, the keyboard was necessary, they were meant to be used with display screens, and they came with BASIC pre-installed

148
Q

Which company made the TRS-80?

A

Radio Shack

149
Q

Which company made the Apple II?

A

Apple

150
Q

Which company made the Commodore PET?

A

Commodore

151
Q

How did the TRS-80 get its wide audience?

A

through Radio Shack’s large network of stores

152
Q

Commodore was a producer of __________ before they made their first PC.

A

calculators

153
Q

The Commodore PET was described as a what machine?

A

a monolithic machine

154
Q

What may have limited the Commodore PET’s appeal?

A

its calculator style keyboard

155
Q

Which Commodore computer holds the title of best-selling desktop?

A

the Commodore 64

156
Q

Which 2 people designed the Apple II?

A

Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs

157
Q

What made the Apple II ideal for gaming?

A

its ability to display color graphics

158
Q
A